Who or What Was Yahweh’s Asherah?

New inscriptions from two different sites have reopened the debate about the meaning of asherah, a term often used in the Bible. Is it—or she—a goddess? Is it a holy place? Or perhaps a sacred tree? Or a pole? Or possibly a grove of trees? All these suggestions have been proposed at one time or another by scholars.

The question is especially intriguing because, as a result of these new inscriptions, the inquiry now arises in connection with the sacred unpronounceable name of Israel’s God, usually written YHWH, or Yahweh.^a Whatever an asherah is, Yahweh had one!